Georgette Braun: Drivers needed to take veterans from Rockford to Madison hospital

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Rockford Register Star

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Posted Nov. 10, 2013 at 7:00 AM

Posted Nov. 10, 2013 at 7:00 AM

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New self-help group:Family Counseling Services has started a self-help group for veterans at its office at 210 N. Longwood St., Rockford.The group meets from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays. There is no cost. Counselors are not part of the group, but during the meeting and for an hour afterward, a social worker is on site at no cost in case issues arise in which a therapist might help.For more information, call 815-962-5585.Memorial:Two recently built, larger-than-life marble soldiers are now in place on the ends of a new granite wall bearing the names of about 200 Davis Junction military veterans.Dedication of the Veterans Memorial at Davis Junction Community Park, 301 Lincoln Ave., likely will be on Memorial Day next year, said Brenda Ognibene, a trustee with the village of Davis Junction.Sidewalks and benches have yet to be put in place, she said. And the village is still in talks with Richard Cody Janes with regard to who is responsible for about $20,000 of expenses associated with the memorial. He is the area sculptor who created the marble soldiers in Italy. Janes has been paid about $120,000.

Local military veterans who help other veterans aren't asking for much on Veterans Day today, but if you have a driver's license and can pass muster, John Kline could use your help.

Kline, a Vietnam vet, is a volunteer who coordinates rides in a van from Rockford to the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wis., every weekday that the hospital is open. He's looking for more drivers.

Yes, there is a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Rockford, but it isn't equipped to provide the complex kinds of medical treatments some veterans need. So they go to Madison.

The van typically carries six or seven riders a day, Kline told me, up from three or four last year. The Chevy Express van holds 12 people, "but at nine, we are crowded," Kline said.

There are half a dozen pickup points, from near the BMO Harris Bank Center in downtown Rockford, which leaves at 6:45 a.m., to a location near a Mobil gas station in Rockton. Veterans have appointments at the VA hospital in Madison at various times, and the bus often returns in the late afternoon or even early evening.

The number of volunteer drivers who take turns transporting veterans: 15. "They are vets and people in the community who want to give back to veterans," Kline said. Each driver must undergo physical and security checks and orientation.

"Most of the people who ride the van can't get up there any other way," Kline told me. "Some don't have cars. Some are homeless."

After Kline returned from Vietnam, he said, he got a good job with insurance benefits at a local aerospace parts maker working with databases. Some Vietnam vets weren't as fortunate. And now that the veterans are in their 60s and more health issues are presenting themselves, they're taking more advantage of health care services the VA provides, he said.

In the past three years, the van has provided rides for 400 to 500 veterans. About 35 are frequent users of the van, Kline said.

The Winnebago County Veterans Association leases the van from the Veterans Administration, and the VA pays for gas and vehicle maintenance. The van is not wheelchair accessible.

Rodney Holloway, 66, of Rockford, a Vietnam veteran, last year rode the van to the Madison VA hospital every day for more than six weeks when he was battling bladder cancer.

At 7:15 a.m. on Oct. 30, he was waiting for the van at the Veteran of Foreign Wars Loves Park Post #9759 on Windsor Road, Loves Park. He had a groin problem.